WARTIME ROMANCES "Lovelife of an Army Nurse"

It is said that "All is fair in love and war"...

...as this nurse learns the hard way in a story from St John's Wartime Romances #1 (1951)!

Penciled by legendary "good girl" artist Mat Baker and inked by Ray Osirin, this tale of combat and cattiness was typical of the more adult approach that St John's creatives took in their various romance titles.

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Art of Glamour

LOVE SECRETS "I Hated Men"

Could there possibly be an innocent explanation for this scene?

Cover art by Matt Baker

If so, what could it be?

Ah, the old "She's my sister!" trope!

The unknown scripter of this never-reprinted story from Quality's Love Secrets #40 (1954) overplays the plot device...which could've been resolved a couple of pages earlier if the idiot guy had simply opened his phone call with "She's my sister and she's getting married and I'm her fiance's best man!" instead of a long, drawn-out explanation!
Though not identified by the Grand Comics Database, the art appears to be by Reed Crandall.

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A History of American Romance Comics

Amorous Education WARTIME ROMANCE "I Tried to Burn the Candle at Both Ends!"

Though it appeared in Wartime Romances...

...this story has nothing to do with anything even vaguely-military related!

Written by Dana Dutch and illustrated by Matt Baker, this story from St John's Wartime Romances #1 (1951), like all the tales in the issue, was a reprint (but all were retitled from their original publication)!
In fact, this one was originally called "I Should Have Played Hard-to-Get!" when it ran in St John's Blue Ribbon Comics: Teen-Age Diary Secrets #4 (1949)...where it was the cover feature!

With the Korean War under way, the editors thought a romance title based on how war affects male-female relationships might be a hot seller!

But they could only find two military-themed stories in their inventory, so they lead with those tales and used other, non military-related tales to fill out the issue!
With #2, they started running new material commissioned specifically for the book, which ran 18 issues through 1953, outlasting the war!

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Art of Glamour

Amorous Education TEEN-AGE DIARY SECRETS "I Was Tired of BEING GOOD..."

 How can you resist a tale with a titillating title like that?

Plus the art is by legendary good girl artist Matt Baker!!!

The writer of this never-reprinted tale from St John's Teen-Age Diary Stories #4 (1949) is unknown, though it's suspected to be Dana Dutch.

BTW, this particular issue was actually a magazine, featuring both fiction and non-fiction text features (with b/w illustrations) and a color comics section with three stories, including this one.

For whatever reason, the later issues of the title were standard comic-book size and format.

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Art of Glamour

PICTORIAL ROMANCES "Fast Company"

Though this romance story doesn't have any Black characters (like our Soul Love or Negro Romances entries)...

..it certainly qualifies as a Black History Month post, not because of who's in it, but because of who did it!!

Though the writer of this tale from St John's Pictorial Romances #7 (1951) is unknown, the penciler is Matt Baker with long-time collaborator Ray Osrin inking the story.

Matt Baker was one of the few Black comic book artists of the Golden and Silver Ages, and was easily the most prolific of them!
Though known for his "good girl" art, including the famous (and infamous) Phantom Girl stories, he handled every genre with ease, including horror, war, sci-fi, and romance!

Sadly, though, few of his stories featured Black characters...who were rare in comics until the mid-1960s!

You can read a short, but complete bio HERE!

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Matt Baker

Art of Glamour

WARTIME ROMANCES "Guilty Secrets"

Ironically, I had planned, a couple of weeks ago, to use today's cover feature...

...as the first post-Yuletide tale of 2020!

But the exacerbation of the Middle East situation by Don da Con gives the Korean War-era story a timeliness I wasn't expecting!

Penciled by comics legend Matt Baker and inked by Ray Osrin, this never-reprinted story from St John's Wartime Romances #12 (1952) was a typical about the stress and strain that wartime separation put on couples...both married and unmarried!

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